General ramblings about my life on the road as I travel around the globe

Posted by: Michelle | February 3, 2013

The month that was… January

Wow. Where did this month go?

I’ve always hated January. Even when I was a wee child, I couldn’t wait for January to be over. It is the let down after the holidays and the short, winter days that are cold. I’ve always counted down the 31 long (in how they pass, short in the amount of light) days until we hit February. Ah, February! It’s a much friendlier month if you ask me; short and sweet and spring is just around the corner. At least that is the message I’m getting from the frogs croaking outside my window. All. Night. Long. The one thing that is most annoying about the warmer weather. Noisy little buggers!

Yet, this month flew by. And I mean literally. At just under 25,000 miles, I was here, there and back again. It was cold, colder than cold, are you friggin’ kidding me cold, warm, drizzle, rain, freezing rain, sleet, flurries, snow and I even saw the sun a time or two. I didn’t get to experience hot, but that is okay. Hot is just around the corner (another subject for another day).

I hit the ground running on January 2nd at o’dark thirty on my way to New Orleans via Houston and haven’t looked back. Most of my travel – although too frequent for some people – was good. I was upgraded 17 out of 18 flights (how about those stats?), all but one flight was on time (I consider “on time” any time I land within 30 minutes of the scheduled time), I had good seatmates, easy connections, access to Starbucks, etc. There was this one time where we had an issue with the nose gear (it wouldn’t come down so they had to do it manually and the indicator light said it wasn’t locked – no biggie) followed by a few tense moments of “will we or won’t we have an emergency evacuation” when we finally landed, escorted by the flashing lights of fire trucks. It doesn’t get much more exciting than that. Did make me stop and think I take “safe travels” for granted. Just a reminder that we aren’t always in control. I really wasn’t paniced or stressed but more impatient. It took around 50 minutes from the time we aborted the landing until all 5 wheels hit the runway. We circled over the water for a long time and I was convinced it was because it would be easier to clean the mess if we did crash. Oh, and I was upset that I only had gummy fruit for lunch (I passed on the snack they served in first. Not sure what it was but it wasn’t appealing to my picky palate). It would be only fitting that my last meal should include Starbucks. In fact, my ashes should be scattered at various Starbucks around the world, not in the ocean next to Boston’s Logan airport. Oops, this is starting to sound a litle morbid. I guess I should move on to a lighter subject…

February looks to be no different, other than it is a shorter by a few days. I can only hope the travel gods continue to smile down upon me and Murphy is busy bothering some other unsuspecting, poor soul. I just booked my first international trip (already had one booked for July) and waiting on confirmation for two others. Looking forward to some new destinations, for work and play (after all, you can’t have one without the other unless win the lottery)!

So here’s to a new year, a fresh (albeit rushed) start to great things professionally and personally. I’ve got some pretty lofty goals and I look forward to making it happen. Last year was not a banner year in many ways but it’s a waste of time to look back and wish I made different choices. One learns more from their mistakes than from their successes (or at least I know I do).

Rain, sleet, snow… nothing will keep my from my coffee!

Watching the sunrise somewhere over Idaho…

Watching the sunset from the lounge at Denver International Airport.

Music calms the savage beast (or traveler in this case) at O’Hare. Portland has live music as well… it’s a great idea.

My dealer at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

Hotel lobby. Usually pass through these without so much as a glance. This one was pretty cool though.